Search this site

Find affordable health plans

About our health insurance quote forms and phone lines

We do not sell insurance products, but this form will connect you with partners of healthinsurance.org who do sell insurance products. You may submit your information through this form, or call
1-205-308-92151-844-961-0503
to speak directly with licensed enrollers who will provide advice specific to your situation. Read about
your data and privacy.

The mission of healthinsurance.org and its editorial team is to provide information and resources that help American consumers make informed choices about buying and keeping health coverage. We are nationally recognized experts on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and state health insurance exchanges/marketplaces.
Learn more about us.

Average rate decrease for 2020, plus 3 new insurers

Missouri has established a task force aimed at making the state’s insurance market more robust and affordable, but even before the task force convened, several insurers had filed plans to join the state’s exchange or expand their existing coverage area for 2020. And the insurers that already offered plans in Missouri’s exchange implemented a small overall rate decrease for 2020.

Missouri had four insurers offering plans in the exchange in 2019, and that grew to seven for 2020. Anthem (Healthy Alliance Life Insurance), Cigna, Ambetter/Celtic (Centene), and Medica offered coverage in various areas of the state in 2019. For 2020, Oscar Health, SSM Health Insurance, and Cox Health Systems joined the exchange.

Cox Health Systems

Cox Health Systems (SERFF filing number COXH-132005795) is offering EPO plans in seven counties in the Springfield area (Barry, Christian, Greene, Lawrence, Stone, Taney, and Webster, all of which are in Rating Area 8). Cox did not participate in the individual market in Missouri in 2019, but they did offer plans outside the exchange in 2018. For 2020, Cox’s filing noted that their plans would only be available through the exchange, with a projected enrollment of about 8,000 people.

Oscar Health

Oscar Health (SERFF filing number OHIN-131965597) offers coverage on- and off-exchange in the Kansas City area for 2020. Their filing was limited to Rating Area 3, where they are offering coverage in Jackson, Clay, and Platte counties (Cass County is also in Rating Area 3, but Oscar confirmed that their coverage area would not include Cass County). Oscar’s filing memo noted that while the majority of their provider network is concentrated in Clay, Jackson, and Platte counties, they do also have some providers in surrounding counties, and members would also be able to access Oscar’s providers on the Kansas side of Kansas City area, in Johnson and Wyandotte counties. Oscar’s filing indicated that they anticipated about 2,500 individual market enrollees for 2020. Oscar has not previously offered coverage in Missouri’s individual market.

SSM Health Insurance

SSM Health Insurance (SERFF filing number DHPL-132014049) offers coverage on- and off-exchange in St. Charles County, St. Louis County, and St. Louis City, which are all in Rating Area 6. SSM is an integrated delivery system with an established presence in the midwest, but they had not previously offered coverage in Missouri’s individual market.

2020 rate changes for existing insurers: A 2% average decrease

Missouri’s four insurers that already offered plans in the exchange in 2019 filed proposed rate changes for 2020 in the summer of 2019. Rates were reviewed by Missouri regulators, but the state’s ability to adjust rates is limited. The following average rate increases were implemented after the review process was completed:

Anthem (Healthy Alliance Life Insurance): 4.6 percent increase. Healthy Alliance had about 32,000 members in 2019. (SERFF filing number AWLP-132022039)

Medica: 2.79 percent increase. Medica had 3,731 individual market enrollees in 2019 (SERFF filing number MEDI-132013748). In 2019, Medica’s plans were only available in Rating Area 3, in Cass, Clay, Jackson, and Platte counties. In 2020, they expanded into several neighboring counties (all still in the Kansas City area), with plans available in Caldwell, Daviess, Henry, Grundy, Johnson, Lafayette, Clinton, Dekalb, and Livingston counties.

Missour exchange enrollment: 2014-2020

202,750 people enrolled in private plans through the Missouri exchange during the open enrollment period for 2020 coverage, which ran from November 1, 2019 through December 15, 2019. This was the fourth year in a row that enrollment declined in Missouri’s exchange, down from a high of more than 290,000 people in 2016.

For perspective, here’s a look at prior enrollment numbers in Missouri’s exchange:

Nationwide, there was an enrollment drop of about 5 percent in 2017, although Missouri’s enrollment dropped more sharply, by about 16 percent. The enrollment declines in 2017 and 2018 were due to a variety of factors, including uncertainty about GOP efforts to repeal the ACA, the Trump Administration’s decision to sharply reduce funding for exchange marketing and enrollment assistance, and sharp premium increases for people who aren’t eligible for premium subsidies (those rate increases were partially due to the market instability caused by GOP efforts to repeal the ACA). There was another nationwide average enrollment decline in 2018 of about 5 percent.

Four insurers offered plans as of 2019, with Medica’s entry in the Kansas City area

Missouri’s exchange had three insurers in 2018: Anthem (Healthy Alliance Life Insurance), Cigna, and Ambetter/Celtic (Centene). But that grew to four for 2019, with Medica’s announcement in June 2018 that they planned to join the Missouri exchange in the Kansas City area (Cass, Clay, Jackson, and Platte counties) as of 2019. Medica began offering plans on the Kansas side of the Kansas City area in 2018, and expanded into the Missouri side for 2019.

The Missouri Department of Insurance created a map that shows the coverage areas of the four individual market insurers for 2019 (plans are available both on and off-exchange). In four counties in the Kansas City area, plans are available from three insurers (Cigna, Medica, and Ambetter/Celtic).

Consumers in the St. Louis area can choose from two insurers in 2019, as can consumers in southwestern Missouri. But most rural areas of the state continue to have just one insurer offering plans — in most cases, either Anthem (Healthy Alliance Life) or Celtic/Ambetter.

Missouri exchange dropped from four insurers to three in 2018

The Missouri exchange had four participating insurers for 2017, but two of them — Humana and Blue KC — announced that they would exit the exchange at the end of 2017, and did not offer plans for 2018.

The other two — Anthem (Healthy Alliance Life) and Cigna — continued to offer coverage in the exchange (Cigna’s participation was limited to 10 counties in the St. Louis area and five counties in the Kansas City Area).

Humana announced in February 2017 that they would end their ACA-compliant individual products at the end of 2017, in all 11 states (including Missouri) where they offered coverage in 2017. Humana plans were available in five Missouri counties in 2017: Jasper, Green, Newton, Jackson, and Clay. Humana members needed to select new coverage for 2018.

Blue KC offered individual market coverage — on and off-exchange — in 30 western Missouri counties in 2017. But they announced in May 2017 that they would exit the ACA-compliant individual market at the end of 2017, in both Missouri and Kansas, and that 67,000 enrollees would need to secure new 2018 coverage during open enrollment. People who had grandmothered and grandfathered individual market plans (ie, purchased prior to October 2013) were not impacted by the exit.

In 25 counties in western Missouri, Blue KC’s impending exit initially meant that there were no insurers slated to offer exchange coverage in 2018 (all but the five Kansas City-area counties where Cigna also offered coverage). Blue KC noted in their announcement that they had lost more than $100 million on their ACA-compliant individual market plans through 2016, calling the losses unsustainable.

Blue KC sought, and obtained, an exemption from the five-year ban on re-entering a market after exiting (the ban on re-entry is a HIPAA regulation that long pre-dates the ACA). Because Blue KC continued to renew their grandmothered and grandfathered plans, their exit from the ACA-compliant individual market is not considered a full market exit, and they may begin selling individual market plans again at any point in the future.

In June 2017, Missouri Insurance Director Chlora Lindley-Myers announced that Ambetter/Celtic Insurance (a Centene company) would be joining the exchange for 2018, and would offer coverage in all 25 of the counties that would otherwise have been left without an insurer in the wake of Blue KC’s exit. In total, Ambetter/Celtic offered exchange plans in 40 counties in Missouri in 2018.

Anthem’s coverage area shrank in 2018, but expanded in 2019

Until the end of 2017, Anthem offered exchange plans in most of Missouri — everywhere except the 30 western counties that were served by Blue KC. For 2018, however, Anthem’s participation was reduced to 68 counties (a full list is in a press release), and the insurer noted that these were all counties that would otherwise have had no insurers offering coverage.

Among the areas Anthem exited were Boone County (Columbia) and the St. Louis area. In both of those areas, Cigna plans were available for 2019 (Cigna’s 2018 rate filing included rating area 5, which includes Boone County. Rating area 5 is comprised of 17 counties, but I confirmed with Cigna that their expansion is limited to Boone County, and not the rest of rating area 5).

Coventry and UnitedHealthcare exited the exchange at the end of 2016

Aetna subsidiary Coventry offered plans in the Missouri exchange until the end of 2016, but abruptly exited the exchange market two weeks before the start of open enrollment for 2017 coverage. I talked with the Missouri Department of Insurance about Coventry’s market share in 2016, and they said that the size of the individual market had “exploded” in Missouri, and that Coventry had picked up a disproportionate number of the new enrollees, since their rates had been among the lowest in the state.

UnitedHealthcare also exited the exchange in Missouri at the end of 2016, and stopped selling any ACA-compliant individual market plans, on- or off-exchange.

People with on-exchange Coventry or UnitedHealthcare plans in 2016 needed to select another plan — or the exchange selected one for them — during open enrollment that fall, as neither insurer’s plans were no longer available through the exchange as of January 2017.

Average rate increases for 2019 were modest

The Missouri Department of Insurance posted a summary of the average rate changes for 2019. In the individual market, all four insurers are offering plans both on- and off-exchange for 2019, with the following average rate changes:

For perspective, here are the average rate increases for the last few years in Missouri:

2018:

Prior to 2018, Missouri deferred to the federal government for rate review of ACA-compliant individual market health insurance. But that changed in 2017 with new state law, and 2018’s rates were reviewed and approved by the state insurance department. Missouri’s exchange insurers implemented the following average rate increases for 2018, which amounted to an overall average increase of about 40 percent:

Cigna: 41.97 percent

Healthy Alliance Life (Anthem): 36.31 percent

Celtic/Ambetter: New to the exchange, no applicable rate increase

All three insurers indicated in their rate filings that they based their 2018 rates on the assumption that federal funding for cost-sharing reductions (CSR, aka cost-sharing subsidies) funding would be eliminated by 2018 (this proved to be a correct assumption, as the Trump Administration cut off CSR funding in October 2017). Insurers still have to provide cost-sharing reductions to eligible enrollees, but the cost of doing so was incorporated into premiums for 2018, since the federal government is no longer covering this cost for insurers.

Consider a 45-year-old in Kansas City, earning $35,000. In 2017, his premium subsidy amount was $115/month, and the cheapest plan he could get in the exchange would have been $190/month after the subsidy was applied. But for 2018, his premium subsidy was $315/month, and he could get a plan in the exchange for as little as $51/month in after-subsidy premiums.

If his income was $25,000, he could get a bronze plan for free in 2018, whereas his lowest-cost option would have been $54/month in 2017. The larger subsidies continue to be available in 2019, as insurers have continued to add the cost of CSR to silver plan rates.

2017:

The four carriers that offered plans through the Missouri exchange had the following average rate increases for 2017, which amounted to an overall average increase of 25.5 percent:

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City (Blue KC): 40.7 percent (increase would have been even higher, but hospitals agreed to lower payments in 2017 as part of their contract negotiations)

Lawmakers considered, but did not pass, legislation to create reinsurance program

Reinsurance refers to a system in which insurance companies can pass off certain high-cost claims to a third party (the reinsurance program). Reinsurance kicks in when a claim reaches a certain level, and then the reinsurance program pays a percentage of the claim until it reaches another certain level. The ACA included a federal reinsurance program, but it was temporary and only lasted through 2016. To counter rising premiums and stabilize local insurance markets, states are increasingly pursuing their own reinsurance program. As of 2020, a dozen states are receiving federal “pass-through” funding for reinsurance, and several other states are considering similar programs.

Reinsurance results in lower overall premiums, which means premium subsidies are also lower. Instead of having the federal government keep the savings from the lower premium subsidies, a state can use a 1332 waiver to have the savings pass through to the state. Then the money is used by the state to cover the majority of the cost of operating the reinsurance program.

H.B.2539 / SB1071 was considered by Missouri lawmakers in 2018, but neither bill reached a full vote. The legislation would have reactivated the former Missouri Health Insurance Pool (the state’s pre-ACA high-risk pool), but it would have become the Missouri Reinsurance Pool instead. The fees that were previously assessed on insurers under the MHIP would have started to apply again, to be used to fund the reinsurance program. Between 1991 and 2014, carriers in Missouri paid an average of nearly $6.5 million per year in fees for MHIP.

In addition to state funding, the legislation would have directed the state to apply for a 1332 waiver in order to obtain federal pass-through savings to fund the reinsurance program, starting in 2019. In the states that have already received federal pass-through funding for reinsurance, the federal funding covers the majority of the cost of the program.

But since the legislation didn’t pass, Missouri is not receiving any federal pass-through funding for reinsurance in 2019.

During the 2018 session, Missouri lawmakers also rejected bills that would have increased the allowable duration of short-term plans, expanded access to association health plans, expanded Medicaid, and added a work requirement to Medicaid.

Transparency and rate review

In May 2016, lawmakers in Missouri unanimously passed SB 865, and Governor Nixon signed it in early July. The new law called for numerous changes in the state’s health care systems, including added transparency for health insurance rates.

Prior to March 2017, Missouri was one of four states without an effective rate review process for ACA-compliant plans (there were five until April 2016, when Alabama implemented an effective rate review process). State regulators did not take an active role in reviewing proposed rates, and the Missouri Department of Insurance did not have access to the rate filings at all. The federal government (specifically, CCIIO – the Center for Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight) conducted the rate review process for Missouri, and rates were published on Healthcare.gov’s rate review page.

SB 865 gives state regulators a bit more leeway but does not actually give them the power to deny rate changes that aren’t justified. Under the new law, regulators are now able to review and publish rate proposals, and determine whether the proposed rates are reasonable. If they aren’t, the regulators will let the health insurers know, but the insurers will still have the option to implement the rates as-proposed. In that case, the state will be able to publicize the fact that the unjustified rates were implemented, but the state will not have the authority to prevent carriers from implementing rates that aren’t justified.

It should be noted that this system is what CCIIO previously provided in Missouri. The federal government can determine whether proposed rates in the state are justified, but they cannot prevent insurers from implementing unjustified rates. Now that SB 865 has taken effect, the state has taken over the process that was previously conducted by CCIIO.

CMS notified Missouri on March 17, 2017, that the state had been deemed to have an effective rate review program. At that point only three states — Oklahoma, Texas, and Wyoming — were still relying on CCIIO for rate review, and that continues to be the case.

Navigator restrictions permanently blocked by federal judge

Missouri is one of about 15 states that has more restrictive training and certification requirements for navigators than what’s required under federal standards. Missouri legislation also prohibits navigators from providing “advice concerning the benefits, terms and features of a particular health plan, or offer advice about which exchange health plan is better or worse for a particular individual or employer.”

Several health care advocacy groups challenged the restriction on providing advice, saying that is the core function of navigators. In January 2014, a federal judge agreed and issued an injunction to halt enforcement of the law. And in April 2015, a federal appeals court concurred, ruling that Missouri could not restrict navigators from helping people enroll in plans through Healthcare.gov.

In March 2016, a federal judge permanently blocked three sections of Missouri’s restrictions on navigators. Navigators in Missouri cannot be barred from providing advice to enrollees (note that this is limited to explaining the differences between plans; plan selection advice can only be provided by a licensed insurance producer). Nor can they be banned from discussing off-exchange plans with consumers. And finally, navigators cannot be required to refer currently-insured consumers to seek advice from a licensed insurance producer. The judge noted that navigators are supposed to be impartial, and forcing them to refer people to insurance agents — who are permitted to recommend one plan over another — would remove some of the impartiality that applies to navigators.

Missouri exchange history

Many Missouri legislators have steadfastly fought against the Affordable Care Act and implementation of the health insurance marketplace.

Legislation to establish an exchange was introduced but failed to pass in both 2011 and 2012. Despite the lack of legislative authorization, some initial workgroups were established. In 2011, then-Gov. Jay Nixon established the Health Insurance Exchange Coordinating Council, which did some initial scoping and planning. Also in 2011, the Senate created the Interim Committee on Health Insurance Exchanges to explore Missouri’s options to establish a state-based exchange.

Members of the Interim Senate committee refused to authorize the use of federal grant money. In April 2012, the Missouri legislature rejected a $50 million grant to upgrade the state’s Medicaid information system as some legislators believed the system would be used as a springboard to building a state-run exchange.

In May 2012, the Missouri legislature approved a ballot measure to prevent the executive branch from authorizing a state-based health insurance exchange without legislative or popular approval — even though Gov. Nixon repeatedly stated his administration would not authorize an exchange by executive order. Voters passed the ballot measure in November 2012, and state defaulted to the federally operated exchange.

In January 2015, Republican Sen. Bob Onder filed a bill that he said was aimed at blocking the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate. SB 51 would have revoked a health insurance company’s license to sell policies in Missouri if it accepted federal subsidies for policies sold through the federal marketplace. It’s questionable what impact the bill would have had if it had passed. One legal expert told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, “It’s sort of an exercise in futility.” Ultimately, the bill didn’t advance out of committee.